Process of making cyanids.



' the same.

PATENT AUGUST DZIUK, OF HANOVER, GERMANY.

PROCESS OF MAKING CYANIDS.

ESPECIFIGATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 651,346, dated June 12, 1900.

7 Application filed March 27,1899. $eria1 No. 710,618- (No specimens.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, AUGUST DZIUK, mining engineer, a subject of the King of Prussia, German Emperor, and a resident of Hanover, in the Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire, have invented a new and useful Process of Manufacturing Gyanids, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to the manufacture of cya'nides by means of elementary nitrogen, and has for its object to enable this manufacture to be carried out in a more advantageous manner than heretofore.

It consists, essentially, in the process of converting the carbides of the alkaline earthy metals, including magnesium, int-o cyanides by treating said carbides in the molten state or in the nascent state at from 1,300 to 3,000 centigrade with pure nitrogen.

In carrying out my improved process the said carbides, may be made use of singly as well as mixed. The cyanides obtained may be converted into alkaline cyanides by treatment with alkaline compounds in the usual manner. By the use of a mixture of the carbides or carbides with iron or with iron compounds ferro-cyanides of the respective metals are obtained, which compounds may also be converted in the well-known manner into ferro-cyanides of the alkaline metals by treatment with alkaline compounds.

According to observations of Moissan it was assumed that free or elementary nitrogen had no action upon the carbides of the alkaline earthy metals and of magnesium. This assumption is met with in all later special treatises, (see, for instance, Ahrens, Chemical and Chemical Technological Lectures, Vol. 1; Liebetanz, Calcium Carbide and Acetylene.) and also German Patents Nos. 88,363, 92,587, and 95,660 (Frank and Caro) are based upon I have discovered that, on the contrary, elementary-that is, free-nitrogen is able to react with the said carbides, so as to transform the same into cyanides. Moissan and his successors have carried out their experiments at relatively low temperatures, about red heat. (See also the specifications above referred to.) At these low temperatures at which the carbides just commence to soften a reaction of the nitrogen with the aforesaid carbides can indeed not be proved. As reaction of nitrogen with the metals of the alkaline earths and with magnesium only takes place at very high temperatures, (see, for instance, Mugdan, Argon, and Helium in Ahrens Lectures, Vol. 1, page 126, and so 011,) I was led to the conclusion that an action of nitrogen upon carbides of the said metals can also only then take place when the latter has been raised to so highly-heated a state that its components, (for instance, in the case of calcium carbide or Ca 0 Ca and C) so to speak, are disassociated and exist freely side. by side, or, in other terms, when the carbide is in the nascent state. On the basis of this consideration I have found that when pure nitrogen is passed in the electric furnace over the carbide while in the fluid statethat is to say, at a temperature of from 1,300 to 3,000 centigradethe carbide is transformed a into cyanide and that the transformation is enhanced by applying a current of nitrogen that has previously been heated to a high temperature. This new fact I explain as follows: The nitrogen is first absorbed by the metal, and then the nitrogen compound thus formed combines with the carbon to cyanide. This latter would then have the constitution XH/ NZO, X being the alkaline earth metal or metals, including magnesiumthat is to say, nitrogen is to be assumed to be pentavalent.

For putting the invention into practice any kind of electric furnace suitable-for the prooxygen, and preferably heated at high temperature. The resulting brown product contains only a small remainder of undecomposed carbide,but is essentially cyanide. The same result is obtained when previously manufactured carbide is brought into the furnace and the nitrogen is admitted afteritis melted.

not only can any carbide of the alkaline earthy metals and of magnesium be treated, but also mixtures thereof. Moreoveigthecorresponding ferro-cyanides of said metals can be prepared by adding iron or iron compounds to the mixture to be melted. Besides or instead of the nitrogen of the atmosphere free nitrogen prepared from any other source might obviously be made use of.

From the cyanides or ferro-cyanides of the alkaline earthy metals and of magnesium thus obtained the cyanides or ferro-cyanides of the alkali metals can be obtained in the well-known manner by treating the'same with suitable alkaline compounds.

What I claim asmy invention is The herein-described process of manufacturing cyanides and ferro-cyanides of the alkaline earth metals including magnesium which consists in subjecting carbides of the said metals in the nascent state to the action of a superheated current of pure elementary nitrogen, substantially as and for the purpose stated.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of two subscribing witncsses.

AUGUST DZIUK.

\Vitnesses:

KIRKE LA'lI-IROP, DORA Got-MANN. 

